Deep watering the garden

Our tomatoes are way behind this year. No thanks to my garden “helper” who killed my first round of tomato seeds that I started way back in February/March. But with any luck & our area having 90F+ degree temperatures until Halloween every year, we may still get a decent crop.

After doing some research I found a lot of info on deep watering that will hopefully let them catch up and produce a great crop for us. Setting up a system was inexpensive and easy- which are two of my favorite things!

I found a lot of different materials to use- PVC pipes, 2-liter bottles, milk jugs, corrugated tubing etc. I decided on the corrugated tubing as it comes already perforated {which is required for any material} so the water can seep out. I easily found it in the plumbing section at Home Depot & for a 10 foot section it was only $5.48.

To get 8 sections out of the 10 foot tubing, I cut it every 15 inches. This will allow a few inches to stay above ground once they are buried & keep it from filling in with dirt. I originally planned on using my husbands miter saw to cut it…but after a phone call to him at work asking him how to unlock the hinge to open the saw, he asked me to please just use a razor-blade instead, for safety. To my credit- I wasn’t scared…I was going to use the saw & I knew how to run it but I just couldn’t find the lock to open it. That’s minor! I could hear the mocking laughter in the background from his co-workers but he was right, the razor-blade worked very well.

We have 13 or 14 tomato plants so I spaced the tubes as evenly as possible between them to make sure they are all getting water. Be careful of the roots! Dig a hole about 12″ deep, place the tube in the hole & backfill the dirt to keep it in place. Then fill with water. I only got 6 blisters in the process and it was only 100F outside, but other than that, it’s easy!

To give the tomatoes even more of what they want I’m brewing some goat manure tea for them. Unlike chicken manure, goat manure is “mild” and doesn’t need to mature in a compost pile to avoid burning your plants. So as it can be directly applied, I’ve been collecting it in a bucket for the garden. I’m not sure if your life has hit a low point or a high point when you are following goats around to collect their poop. Let’s go with it hitting a high point…it’s a small price to pay to be able to grow so much right in our own backyard!